By Paul Festa
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
April 30, 1999, 9:45 a.m. PT
RealNetworks on Monday is expected to jump into the world of MP3 and
other digital music download formats with a product called Jukebox,
according to sources familiar with the plan.
A company spokesman would not discuss RealNetworks' plan except to
reiterate that an announcement was planned for Monday. But CNET News.com spoke with four sources who have seen the product and been briefed by RealNetworks. The domain name "RealJukebox.com" was registered by the company earlier this month, according to the Whois database.
Jukebox is a client-side application that converts, or "rips," compact
discs and translates them into a digital file format, the sources said. The product also automatically enters information such as song title and artist into a manageable database for music downloaded from the Internet or CDs.
Jukebox is being launched in response to the explosive growth of MP3 (
MPEG 1, Audio Layer 3), a compression format that allows for easy
downloading of music files onto a PC hard drive or portable MP3 player. Although the format itself is legal, it lacks copyright protections, and the music industry has cracked down on sites offering illegally copied music. But thousands of amateur artists and several high-profile professionals have embraced the technology to distribute their music on the Net.
Jukebox also is Real's first product for use with MP3, but Real on
Monday is expected to announce support for other formats as well. Until now, RealNetworks has concentrated on real-time streaming media, both audio and video, as opposed to download technology. |
